


Fog

by Reign_of_Rayne



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, labs n science n stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-04-27 14:20:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14427273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reign_of_Rayne/pseuds/Reign_of_Rayne
Summary: In which Ace was captured by the marines soon after Sabo was presumed killed, and things go downhill from there.





	1. Chapter 1

Sabo had been sent to infiltrate the marines’ secret lab months ago. He’d taken half that time just to get clearance in order to get his foot in the door, and the rest building up trust from his colleagues. Everything about the facility was clean: blue tile floors, chrome tables, white walls and ceilings. It even smelled clean, so much so that Sabo’s nose often burned for the first ten minutes of his work day. The lab had three main spaces: Laboratory 1, Laboratory 2, and Laboratory 3, respectively. There were other spaces, lower spaces, basement levels—but Sabo wasn’t there yet. He needed more time.

Right now, he was working on synthesizing new types of Sea Stone in Lab 3. He’d long since claimed this back corner for himself, and no one ever bothered him here. Of course, the marines didn’t have to know that Sabo was repeating research the Revolutionaries had tried years ago. Sabo knew already that his experiments would fail. The marines did not. The interim between those points was all the time Sabo had to investigate this facility, which was hidden away in a perpetually-foggy sector in the Grand Line.

Sabo hated the island. He hated the labs and the scientists that worked them. There was no spark, no life. These people were completely consumed by their research. Sabo doubted that any of them even understood the ramifications of what they were doing.

“Dr. Laurenotiovy,” someone called. Sabo glanced up at the call. “Laurenotiovy” was his false identity—to be more accurate, Dr. Argent Laurenotiovy. It was an obvious trick, but in a room full of geniuses, not one had realized it.

“Yes?” Sabo replied, turning to see a short, balding man in a white lab coat approaching. “Can I help you?”

“You’ve been reassigned,” the scientist said. Sabo raised an eyebrow, setting down the samples he had been working with and fully facing the new arrival.

“Reassigned? I have not finished my research here.”

The man nodded. “Yes, we realize. Walk with me?”

Without much choice, Sabo acquiesced. “So, my reassignment.”

“Indeed. The higher-ups and myself—the head of your new research project—have decided that your skills with Sea Stone and interpersonal maneuvering—don’t think I didn’t see you work your way to that corner—would be better suited for a different project.”

The scientist opened one of the restricted doors within Lab 3. Beyond was a simple hallway, flanked with some offices and bookended by another doorway at the far end. That doorway was heavy steel, tinted just blue enough that Sabo guessed that it wasn’t pure metal. There was Sea Stone in it.

Sabo felt a thrill of fear run up his spine. Was he discovered? Was this scientist walking him into an ambush?

“What is this about?” Sabo asked carefully.

“I’m afraid I cannot tell you anything until we reach a less public area,” the scientist replied. Concerns not at all assuaged, Sabo could only follow him down the hallway. This entire operation had been one calculated risk on Dragon’s part; what was one more?

They went to the door. Sabo watched the scientist insert a key and then enter a passcode to open it. Combined with the heaviness of the door, it was the most security Sabo had ever seen in a marine base. A camera watched with an unblinking eye while Sabo followed the scientist through. The door closed behind them; the only way forward led to the elevator several yards away.

They stepped inside and the scientist hit the down button. There were no individual floor numbers. Only up or down. The elevator jerked into motion.

“Now that we’re away from eavesdroppers,” the scientist said, startling Sabo out of his observations, “I can go into more detail.”

Sabo clasped his hands behind his back and offered a cool smile. “Please.”

“The project is known as Project Ember. It’s been running for just over a decade, with a single subject that we have been cataloguing observations of.”

“Only one subject?”

“Yes. One subject, kept in a maximum security room for all of our safety.” The elevator came to a halt and dinged. “Trust me, seeing it will be believing it. This way.”

Sabo followed the man down a few hallways. They split off to the right at the next fork and the scientist once more entered a passcode to open the door—the same code as the first door, if Sabo wasn’t mistaken. Beyond was a simple room filled with monitoring equipment, but none of the equipment was focused on the observation room. Rather, it was focused on the space separated from the observation room by a thick pane of glass.

Beyond that pane was fire. Sabo stepped forward, curiosity piqued. It was a room, easily thirty feet square, with a completely white walls. The whole things appeared to be on fire, but Sabo saw no smoke. What was this?

As though to answer the question, the scientist approached the glass and tapped it. He glanced at Sabo. “Just you wait. He hates me more than anyone; you’ll see quite the demonstration when he realizes just who’s come knocking.”

Unsure how to respond, Sabo stepped up to the glass as well.

The fire suddenly splashed down to the center of the room and then rushed the glass, breaking against it like a wave. Sabo flinched back on instinct and then heard the other scientist chuckling, entirely unfazed.

“Oh, don’t worry. He does that all the time. He won’t get out.” He? The first instance clearly wasn’t a mistake, then. Ignorant of Sabo’s unasked question, the scientist tapped the glass. Upon closer inspection, Sabo could see little blue veins running through it. “Laced with Sea Stone, designed specifically to hold him in. And, if he gets too rowdy…”

On cue, a warning light flared to life on the far wall inside of the cell. The fire, which had smashed against the glass another three times, dispersed around the room but kept several feet away from the light. Sabo took a step forward, transfixed.

“What’s happening?” he asked. Movement below caught his eye and he glanced down. Horror flowed through him, barely contained behind the mask of the intrigued scientist Sabo had plastered on his face to hide it. “Seawater?”

Small holes had opened up in the floor and water was gushing out of them. The fire went higher and higher, but more holes opened up in the walls. With nowhere to go, it was only a matter of time before the fire made contact. The second the water touched it, the fire all concentrated in one spot and faded. Confused, Sabo blinked. There was a man there now. A young man—probably Sabo’s age, in his late teens or very early twenties. He was clothed in simple pants and a shirt. For a single second, he remained on his feet with the water pooling around his ankles. Then he staggered, one arm flailing for support and finding none, and fell. The water splashed around him. He made no move to rise.

“Is he going to drown?” Sabo asked, his clinically detached tone betraying none of the revulsion beneath.

“Oh, of course not,” the scientist said. He pushed a button and the water began to drain away the same way it had come in. “He is far too valuable a test subject.” As the water trickled away, Sabo examined what he could see of the man’s features. Sun-kissed skin, black hair, but musculature that indicated heavy exercise.

“Do you exercise him?” Sabo asked. “He appears to be in very good condition.”

“Yes, we do,” the scientist replied. “See the marks on his wrists?” Sabo did: tan lines. “When we bring him to the exercise yard, he has to wear Sea Stone cuffs. It keeps him from getting any ideas, though he’s had some in the past.” Sabo’s eyes finally picked out the scars on the man’s skin. There were many. “He is designated as subject A-7. We caught him…oh, nine, ten years ago? Fed him the Mera Mera no Mi, and have been observing him ever since. Logia types are among the most powerful of Devil Fruits, so we’ve been experimenting with ways to combat them with all types of Sea Stone.”

Pushing through his hesitation, Sabo asked, “What kinds of types?”

“Oh, the works. The usual cuffs, bullets, blades, blunt weapons, gas. I believe the most recent round was injections, which are extremely effective but seem to have no consistent effects. Nearly killed him with those, and that would’ve been a waste.”

“Yes, truly,” Sabo agreed on autopilot. He was staring at the subject, the man, again. He had shifted, slowly getting his arms and knees under him before he pushed himself up. Seawater dripped from his hair. From what Sabo knew about Devil Fruits, there was no way for him to activate his Devil Fruit powers until dry. Sabo waited for him to just turn his back to the glass but, to his surprise, the man faced them. His eyes skipped right over Sabo and focused on the scientist.

And his eyes. They _burned_. Not literally, not with the seawater, but there was a maelstrom of hate raging within them. Sabo snuck a glance at the scientist; for all that he had flippantly brushed aside the subject’s earlier anger, he was clearly shaken by this.

The man got to his feet. He swayed for a moment and then steadied himself. Slowly, one step at a time, he approached the glass. When he got close, he slammed an open hand against it, right at the scientist’s face. The subject growled something, face contorted in hate, but there was no sound. 

“It’s soundproofed,” the scientist said, giving Sabo a shaky smile that was obviously meant to be encouraging. Clearing his throat, the scientist turned his back on the subject and walked over to the nearest terminal. “This way. I’ll show you what we have to far and what we want you to do. The guidelines are very loose. I have a multitude of other projects to oversee; you’ll be on your own here, but if there are any problems, please,” his gaze turned hungry, “inform me.”

“I will,” Sabo said. He most certainly would not.

The briefing passed quickly. Every now and then, Sabo snuck glances over his shoulder while the scientist was distracted. The subject was still at the glass, but not touching it. Just standing there. The contact he’d made with it earlier had made him visibly pale, and while the concentration wasn’t enough to incapacitate him like seawater, it was enough to deter him from prolonged or repeated contact. He just watched, and every time Sabo looked up, they made eye contact.

Sabo couldn’t read anything from him except rage. It was chilling.

“And that’s all,” the scientist finished. “Any questions?”

“Just one,” Sabo said, recalling one inconsistency he’d heard. He pointed to one of the spreadsheets spread out on the nearby table. “This is the spreadsheet for the fourth round of testing, correct? It appears that whoever did the data entry put in the same data for the fourth as they did for the third. Would you like me to correct it?”

The scientist blinked. “Ah.” Sabo immediately knew that this man had been the one to make the mistake. “Actually, the fourth trial must have been a misfile. Please erase the fourth trial entirely.”

“Certainly.”

“Do that, and you can be done for the day,” the scientist said. He rummaged around in his lab coat and pulled out a key. “Here’s your key. The access code is 7-3-3-1-8. Don’t forget.”

Sabo inclined his head. “Of course.”

The instant the scientist left, Sabo did a quick check of all the surveillance equipment. Just as he’d expected, there were no devices set up to monitor the observation room. For all intents and purposes, he was invisible.

Ignoring the feeling of A-7—no, the man, because the designation was dehumanizing and Sabo didn’t need to contend with that in his mind—staring at the back of his head, Sabo quickly set about doing what the scientist had asked him to. The task took no time at all, but Sabo had always been a quick study with new technology. He had twenty or so minutes before his continued presence became odd.

He shut down the computer and stood. There were scattered papers and some pens on the nearby table. Sabo quickly took a pen and scrawled out a message on the paper. It read: _Name?_ And then, below that: _You are being watched. There is a blind spot at about chest height where you are currently standing because I am in the way._

Finished, Sabo took his paper and, after angling himself to block the camera—making sure to make it look casual and unintentional—he pressed the paper to the glass.

The man’s eyes immediately switched from Sabo’s face to the page. His brows furrowed, the anger dissipating into suspicion mixed with confusion. Sabo watched him read and then, when he assumed the man was done, tapped the _Name?_ request.

It had been a gamble as to whether or not the man could read, but apparently he could. The man’s gaze flicked between Sabo’s eyes and the paper a couple of times. Sabo kept his expression neutral and didn’t move. After several seconds, the man narrowed his eyes. He lifted a finger and wrote in the air above his chest, reversed for Sabo’s benefit: A-C-E. The burning letters quickly vanished, but Sabo had gotten them. He nodded once and then looked up at Ace. He could make no promises now, but there was a plan forming in his head.

Sabo couldn’t contact the Revolutionary Army on this island without blowing his cover. He would have to be sure about Ace before he did anything drastic, but he knew in his gut that Ace was the greatest secret this facility was hiding. The marines would do anything to hide that they were doing human experimentation. No wonder the observation room wasn’t monitored; they didn’t want the identities of the scientists exposed if things did get out.

Ace, not clued into Sabo’s thoughts, frowned. He seemed to be expecting more. Sabo shook his head slightly and quickly destroyed the paper, then hid the scraps from the cameras while he cleaned up. He didn’t look at Ace before he left the observation room and shut the door behind him.

 

* * *

 

The next day, before engaging at all with Ace, Sabo checked the computers. Sure enough, there were old files about Ace receiving a rudimentary education. More than once a researcher had remarked about Ace’s intelligence, or his ingenuity. This was no dulled genius; Ace was keeping his mind sharp.

Good.

The night of thought and rest had further solidified Sabo’s intentions. Ace was a prisoner, a torture victim, imprisoned here against his will under so much secrecy that Sabo doubted there was anyone outside of this place who knew he existed.

But, beneath that cold logic, there was something else. Something familiar about Ace and the rage in his eyes. That was all emotional, however, and not reason enough on its own.

Ace remained dispersed as fire while Sabo investigated the computers. Sabo began a new document for field notes that the head scientist would undoubtedly be checking. He put in some lies about checking ‘Subject A-7’s’ mental state through written commands and questions and then grabbed a paper, pen, and clipboard.

Seeing Ace form out of the fire was less disconcerting when he did it willingly. He strode up to the glass, eyes flicking to the nearest camera for a second before landing on Sabo’s with a question in them. The suspicion was still there, and it was warranted.

Sabo scrawled out another note. This one described the fake ‘research’ Sabo was doing. Sabo held up the notepad and then, before Ace could break eye contact to read it, meaningfully jerked his head at the camera. The message was clear: Ace was being watched.

Ace’s eyebrows dropped low over his eyes. This close, Sabo could see every detail of the scars stretching over his skin. They were numerous and varied in type; some were even and clean, clearly caused by bladed weapons, while others were messy knots. There were a few clear burn scars on Ace’s left arm, but when Sabo looked closer, he realized that the burns formed letters.

It hit him all at once. Ace had burned those letters into himself: A-S-C-E, with the ‘S’ crossed out. Some kind of reminder about his past?

Ace finished reading and looked back up at Sabo with a blank expression. If he was acting, he was damned good: Sabo couldn't tell whether the anger in his eyes was real or faked. Probably both.

Following the directions Sabo had written, Ace backed up five steps and then, per the instructions, did a handstand. He held it for precisely twenty seconds before dropping down and doing ten perfect push-ups. Sabo made a note on his clipboard like the scientist he was pretending to be that Ace understood commands and numbers. Ace stood straight and walked back over.

Sabo wrote out new commands and held them up.

So the day passed. Ace never seemed to tire, as though whatever exercises Sabo had him do were well within his physical capabilities. At precisely 12 o’clock noon, a slot opened up in the far wall of Ace’s cell and food dropped out: bars, some fruit, and a few other things that Ace ate too quickly for Sabo to identify. There was also another slot in the wall that opened whenever Ace approached that would dispense water in a fountain. Ace would drink and walk away, and the water would automatically stop and the slot would close.

The longer Sabo spent with Ace, the more disgusted he became with the way the scientists treated him. Over the next week, multiple other scientists involved with the project stopped by the visit. As Sabo was still under the pretext of gaining a complete physical understanding of Ace, he could deflect any of their requests or pushes for more invasive ‘testing.’ His stomach curled every time.

At the same time, the more Sabo worked with Ace, the more Ace seemed to trust him. So, during the middle of the second week, when Sabo put up his latest message, Ace hid his surprised reaction within a second. He glanced up at Sabo, as though to make certain. Sabo, his back to the camera, grinned.

The next day, Sabo set his plan in motion. He’d been building up to it for days now, setting all the seeds of destruction he needed, and a few extra for good measure. All the pieces were ready. He just had to put them together.

Nerves sparking with excitement and mind awash with eagerness to finally escape this place, Sabo approached the glass with his clipboard for the last time. There was only one word written on it: _Now_.

The second after Sabo held it up for Ace to see, the facility’s power cut out. Ace immediately turned one hand to fire so Sabo could see in the otherwise pitch-black, windowless space. Sabo drew his hand back and then struck the glass with his signature Dragon Claw style. The glass cracked. One more blow shattered it, and the shards rained down.

Ace whistled, startling Sabo. He’d never actually heard Ace make a sound before. “Impressive,” Ace said. His voice was deep and a little rough around the edges, with the hint of what Sabo guessed was an East Blue accent. “I guess you were serious.”

Sabo nodded. “I am. Now follow me. We have little time.”

“On one condition,” Ace said, stopping Sabo.

“What?” Sabo asked irritably. Ace had been perfectly fine with the plan after Sabo explained it to him the first time, and he’d gone into painstaking detail on all those pages.

“Whoever we run across,” Ace said, whole body seeming to pulse with heat, “whoever they are to you, they’re _mine_.”

Sabo had no pity to spare. He nodded.

They exited into the hallway. Sabo led the way, the route locked into his mind. Ace turned any scientist he saw to ash immediately. Without power, there was no way for them to raise an alarm. Sabo opened the door at the top of the stairwell, strode down the hallway, and then paused before the final door that led into Lab 3. Using his Haki, he counted the number of people in the room. Twenty-eight.

“Ace,” he murmured. “There are a lot of them. The whole room is a lab dedicated to studying Sea Stone. If one of them gets to it before you get to them—”

Ace’s eyes glimmered in the firelight from his hand. “They won’t.”

He slipped past Sabo and, to Sabo’s surprise, shut the door in Sabo’s face. Sabo resisted the immediate urge to open the door and waited. Light and heat streamed into the corridor around the door’s edges. Sabo held a hand up to the door but did not touch; the heat emanating from the metal was enough to hurt even without direct contact.

After a minute, the light faded and the door opened. Ace was back to just burning his hand, limiting Sabo’s ability to observe the room with his eyes, but Haki provided a more than adequate answer to his questions. Ace had shown no mercy.

“Where to now?” Ace asked.

Sabo led the way to the other off-limits door. It had taken hours of careful hacking to find the facility’s blueprints, but the effort had paid off. This door led to a private dock reserved for high-level visitors. Right now, there weren’t any, but several upper-echelon scientists kept private craft there—most likely, in case Ace broke out.

Ace paused once they went through the door. Sabo did too, wondering if the shock of the open air was too much for him. “Ace?”

“One sec.” Ace held his hands by the edges of the steel door and they glowed with heat. The metal soon began to melt. Within a minute the door was fused shut.

“Nice planning,” Sabo commented. Ace smirked.

“I’ve been thinking about escape for a while. This was just one of my ideas.”

“The others?”

“Not applicable. Are we going or what, traitor scientist?”

“Sabo,” Sabo corrected. “My name is Sabo.”

Ace froze. “What?”

Hearing noise on the other side of the door, Sabo grabbed Ace’s arm and yanked him down the dock, which was shrouded in fog that had seeped in through the boathouse’s open entrance.

“Freeze later, move now,” he said.

Most of the craft wouldn’t last on the Grand Line’s seas, but Sabo found the one that two people could reasonably sail and quickly boarded. He’d loaded it up with supplies the previous day, swimming through the shallow waters nearest to the island.

Only after they’d escaped onto the open water did Sabo realize that he’d actually touched Ace. He had felt completely human; his skin was warmer than someone else’s might be, sure, but that was all.

Sabo’s grip on the wheel tightened. Those scientists had known exactly what they were doing. Sabo didn’t regret what would happen next at all.

Some ten minutes after the facility was lost to sight in the fog, when Ace had joined Sabo in the wheelhouse, they both heard a muffled boom and then, a few seconds later, a massive wave rocked the boat. Sabo, expecting it, was unfazed. Ace nearly fell but caught himself. Sabo kept his face carefully blank while Ace stared. Finally, Ace shook his head.

“You’re not a marine,” he said. “Not even a traitor. And you’re definitely not a pirate. Who are you?”

Sabo locked the wheel into position and then faced Ace. “Are you sure you want to know?”

Ace crossed his arms. Outside of the facility, with natural light softening his features, he looked completely human. Sabo finally realized that he had freckles dotted across his face, a feature that had escaped him until this point. “I do,” Ace said. “You broke me out. Why?”

“My mission,” Sabo said, “was to infiltrate that secret facility and ascertain its purpose. Basically, I was sent to find out why the marines were going through all the trouble of keeping it hidden. It took me months to get inside in any position of value.”

“Your mission?”

Sabo nodded. “My mission. Turns out the reason was you, which is why I was so quick to break you out.”

“And why you’ve held on to printed out records,” Ace said dryly, jerking his chin at the papers in the satchel by Sabo’s foot.

“Exactly,” Sabo said.

Ace ran a hand through his hair, dislodging some of the water droplets that had accumulated there thanks to the fog. “So, who sent you on this mission? You never answered my question.”

Blunt. “I am a member of the Revolutionary Army,” Sabo said. Ace’s brows furrowed.

“How long have you been with the Revolutionary Army?”

“Roughly ten years.”

Something was going on behind Ace’s eyes, but Sabo couldn’t figure it out. “What were you doing before that?”

Sabo shrugged, returning his gaze to the ocean stretching out in front of their boat, now visible through the thinning fog. “Dunno. There was an accident; I lost my memory.”

Ace closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He stayed like that for several seconds, and Sabo couldn’t figure out why. When he glanced up, his expression was clear. “So, Mr. Sabo-the-Revolutionary-Agent, where are we headed?”

It was a change in subject, but not one that Sabo minded. He smiled.

“Home.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *shows up to a story I marked as complete a year ago with a new chapter and coffee* Yo.

"Shots?"

"They're required," Sabo said, not entirely unsympathetic. "I know you don't like needles—"

"That's an understatement."

"—but we have to make sure you're immunized. They kept you in isolation for years. I'm sure there are diseases around this base that you're not equipped to handle."

Ace's eyes darted to the two nurses preparing the shots behind Sabo. His knuckles were white from the force behind his grip on the edge of the examination bed. "I can just burn it all out of me."

"Do you know that for sure? Do you really want to do that every time you develop symptoms? What if it doesn't work?"

Ace scowled but didn't argue further. When Sabo made to leave, though, Ace's hand shot out and fastened around his wrist. "Wait," he muttered, head bowed and expression shaded by his hair. "Just—just stay."

After glancing at the nurses for their approval, Sabo nodded. "I'll be right here. I won't let them do anything to you."

Ace's shoulders rose and fell as he took a deep breath. Sabo knew his wrist was going to bruise, but he kept any hint of pain from his voice.

"Okay," Ace said, raising his head and fixing the nurses with a steely glare. "Get it over with."

The first shot came and went. Sabo's tendons shifted over the bones in his wrist and he hid a wince.

"Two more," the blond nurse said reassuringly. "You're doing great."

"Thanks," Ace bit out. He was staring hard at the far wall.

Ace weathered the second shot with the same tenuous equilibrium. Sabo took to subtly reinforcing his arm with armament Haki; Ace was so focused on the wall that he didn't even notice the black sheen on Sabo's skin.

"Last one."

The instant the last needle was out for good, Ace shot to his feet, released Sabo's wrist, and fled into the hallway. Sabo took the disinfectant wipe and bandage from the nurses, reassured them that Ace was probably fine, and chased after him. Ace hadn't gone far; he was just pacing outside, right hand spread over where the shots had gone in without touching. He didn't hear Sabo approach. When Sabo got close, though, Ace froze and spun to face him, one fist burning to flame that lit up the whole hallway in flickering red light. Sabo held up his hands.

"Just me," he said. "I'm not here to hurt you."

After a second, Ace let out a shaky breath, straightened, and released his fire. He leaned his back up against the wall, his gaze going to his shoulder, where a drop of fresh blood gleamed under the fluorescent lights.

"Can I put this on?" Sabo asked, holding up the bandage. Ace stared at him for a moment and then nodded. Sabo quickly cleaned his shoulder and spread the bandage over it. Ace stared.

"Pink?" he murmured. He glanced up, and his pupils weren't blown wide from panic anymore. "Sorry. I couldn't stay in there."

"I understand. You don't need to apologize."

Ace shook his head. "No, it's—" he sighed. "They'd strap me down, stuff—stuff something in my mouth, and just…" he pantomimed shoving a needle into his own arm. Sabo carefully suppressed a wave of anger on Ace's behalf. That facility was burned to the grown, blown up and scattered across the Grand Line. They would never be able to do that to him again. "And then they'd just stand there, and watch, and wait."

Morbid curiosity nudged Sabo's tongue. "What were they waiting for?"

Ace raised a hand and stared at it, gray eyes blank. "I don't know. They all did—the shots—they did different things. I don't even remember all of them."

Sabo waited, but Ace didn't say anything else. "You're being rather trusting of me," he said carefully.

For some reason, that made Ace smirk. The former prisoner shook his head a little and pushed off the wall. "Yeah, well, you're the guy that broke me out. I don't know anyone else here. Options are a bit limited these days. What's next on your little arrival agenda?"

"We need to speak with Dragon."

"What, like an actual dragon?"

"No, the leader of the Revolutionary Army. Monkey D. Dragon."

Ace stumbled but caught himself and waved Sabo off. "Yeah, sure. 'Course he's named M—ah, Dragon."

"I've already briefed him on the basics," Sabo said, "but he wanted to hear more from you in person."

"So that's where you disappeared to earlier."

"Yes. Some of the documents I procured were time-sensitive, and I figured it best to get them into the right hands as soon as possible. I ran into Dragon in the middle of that errand."

"He doesn't sound like the kind of guy you just 'run into'."

"You'd be surprised."

Sabo led the way up the stairwell, both their footsteps echoing. Ace stuck close to him, and Sabo found himself focusing on that. That strange feeling Ace stirred in him would not go away. If anything, it had grown more distracting the longer Sabo spent around Ace. Was Ace someone he used to know? But no, he'd been in that lab for so long…

Shaking his head, Sabo pushed open the door on the next landing and held it for Ace, who slowed to a stop when he saw the space beyond. Revolutionaries filled the massive room, working at desks and tables alike. The whole room buzzed with noise and activity. To their left, a woman broke out into raucous laughter at her friend's joke. Just behind her, someone dropped a mug that shattered loud enough to make everyone nearby reach for their weapons. Someone's snail was ringing.

Wonder filled Ace's expression as he took it all in. Sabo kept a careful eye on him, wondering if this much noise would be overwhelming. But Ace, once the wonder was tempered with exposure, seemed more at ease than he had ever been before. He glanced back at Sabo, and while wariness still lurked in the creases of his face, he managed a lighthearted tone.

"So, where's this Dragon's office?"

"Through the maze," Sabo said, indicating a door on the opposite side of the room. If Ace was daunted, he didn't show it. Still, he let Sabo take the lead. Catching Koala's eye from several desks away, Sabo shook his head a little. He'd tell her the details later once he got Ace settled in. Seeming to get the message, Koala returned to her talk with a young man all but buried in papers.

"Know her?" Ace asked from behind Sabo.

"I know everyone," Sabo tossed over his shoulder, which was such a blatant lie that he got a few scoffs from the people in earshot. He knew Ace heard them too, but he decided not to defend himself. That was what a guilty man would do. And Sabo, naturally, had never been guilty a day in his life. Being guilty required that the judge and jury still be around to sentence him.

Ace slowed down. Sabo paused and glanced back. "What's wrong?"

"The shots," Ace said. He frowned. "I was expecting the effects by now."

"The effects?"

"Yeah. The numbness, the nausea, the burning, the…" he trailed off. "Those things aren't normal, are they?"

"No. I mean, the needle tips were made from sea stone, so I'd expect some odd feelings in that area for a few minutes, but the effects wouldn't be delayed like that." Ace scowled. "It's necessary. Otherwise they would just go right through you."

Ace rubbed his shoulder where the obnoxiously bright bandage was stained with the tiniest spot of crimson. "Doesn't mean I have to like it."

"No one said you did. Though, if you do feel anything that's not…if you feel something that approaches your usual bounds, say something."

"Yeah, sure."

The next time Ace stopped, Sabo didn't notice for several steps. He had to backtrack through a sudden line of revolutionaries all fighting over some specific document—one from the lab Sabo had blown up. Forcing his way through, Sabo found Ace staring at the wall of bounty posters, back and shoulders rigid. Sabo approached warily, unsure why Ace was so tense.

"Ace?" He followed Ace's gaze. He couldn't see exactly which poster had Ace so transfixed, but the man was unresponsive. Sabo walked up to the board and made his best guess: a new player on the field, some upstart kid from the East Blue who had managed to defeat Arlong. Most of the other posters around it were members of that kid's crew.

"This who's got your attention?" Sabo asked, pointing to the poster. Ace blinked and finally seemed to realize Sabo was there.

"Do you know him?" Ace asked.

Sabo frowned. "We keep track of any pirates of interest. This kid looks like he'll cause a lot of headaches for the marines, so we're keeping an eye on him."

Ace approached the board. "Luffy," he muttered, scrutinizing the picture like it was some kind of treasure map. Sabo frowned.

"Do _you_ know him?"

Ace shook himself out of his trance. "Not—no, not really." He cleared his throat and stepped back. "Let's just meet this Dragon guy."

It was a sloppy change in subject that Sabo let slide. Ace hadn't slept much at all on their journey to the base; Sabo could forgive him the occasional slip.

"What's this guy like?" Ace asked while they wove their way through the room.

"He's a little hard to put into words. Serious, I suppose. Focused."

"Anything I should know?"

"Not that I could think of."

"You're not all that helpful."

"Hard to be when I don't know what you're looking for." Sabo turned sideways to avoid being hit by a man carrying a stack of files half again his height. "What do you want me to say?"

"Dunno. I had some manners lessons when I was really little. They stuck in my head."

"The marines taught you manners?"

"Fuck no." Ace spat the words with venom on his tongue, drawing a few curious stares. "No, this was from…from before I was captured."

Ace hadn't said much at all about that. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Sabo expected the answer to be a nice, even _no_. To his surprise, Ace paused and looked back at him, then at Dragon's door. He narrowed his eyes. "Actually, yeah. I do."

Finding a back room that was relatively insulated from the madness outside, Sabo left the door cracked open slightly and sat on the table. Ace stuck to the wall next to the door, arms crossed and one finger tapping restlessly against his bicep. Sabo had a couple guesses why Ace was suddenly interested in delaying their talk with Dragon. The most likely hypothesis was that Ace suspected Dragon might for some reason kick him out of the Revolutionary Army hideout, and he was in no position to be left on his own yet.

"So you know the pirate Luffy," Sabo started, since Ace didn't seem inclined to take initiative. Ace nodded, eyes switching from the tiny window on the wall to Sabo's right to Sabo's face. His focus was so disconcerting. He was always looking for something, but Sabo couldn't figure out what.

"Yeah. He was my brother."

"Your brother?" Sabo could see some resemblance, he supposed. "He wasn't captured?"

Ace shook his head. "No. He got away. Kinda forced him to. I didn't know for sure until just now that he'd escaped those bastards."

Sabo didn't have any family, but he could guess the mental burden of that kind of uncertainty. Ace's torture was bad enough, but the fear of his brother enduring the same? That could break a man. "I can assure you he has been wreaking some rather serious havoc. He seems to have a particular distaste for marine bases."

Ace looked down at the floor. "Not too surprising, really." He glanced up and swallowed. "You don't think he's looking for me, do you?"

"It's possible."

Ace closed his eyes. "That idiot. It's been years. I would've been dead long before he found me."

"But you're not dead."

"And he wasn't the one that found me." That searching look was back. "You did."

"I did, yes."

When Sabo didn't say anything else, Ace sighed and looked away. "We grew up on a small island in the East Blue. Out of the way. Not bothering anyone. Had some bandits, some pirates, but things were fine. 'Til a Celestial Dragon came around." Ace scoffed. "Nothing good ever happens when those assholes appear."

Sabo wholeheartedly agreed. He'd seen enough slavery to last lifetimes, and the Celestial Dragons were at the heart of that bloodied empire.

"My friend—we, I mean Luffy and I and him, swore brotherhood, so really my brother—was trying to escape his stupid parents and the pompous noble prick blew him out of the water."

Sabo's burns itched. He ignored the feeling. "That's terrible."

"Yeah." Ace pushed some hair out of his face but stilled with his hand over his left eye. "I almost lost my whole family that day." He laughed, but it was a broken sound, full of time-numbed pain. "I wasn't there when it counted. Guess the universe has it out for me, you know?"

"With how your brother is searching for you?"

Ace peered out from between his fingers, his smile ragged. "Something like that."

"Do you want to wait for a bit before talking to Dragon?" Sabo asked slowly. "You didn't sleep much on the way here."

"I'm fine."

"You're clearly not."

"I'm fine enough."

"Ace."

"Sabo. I wouldn't be able to fall asleep even if I wanted to." He pushed off the wall. "Let's have this talk. Then you can show me to wherever I can sleep without getting watched, poked, or prodded."

"Only if you're sure."

"I'm sure."

When they went into his office, Dragon was sitting at his desk, a folder with the familiar "confidential" marking stamped across the front. Ace followed Sabo's example with barely-detectable nervousness, his eyes darting around the room, taking in everything as the door shut behind them, muffling the worst of the noise from outside. They stopped a few feet from the edge of the desk, Sabo just slightly in front of Ace.

After a few tense seconds, Dragon shifted. He shut the folder and slid it into the middle of a short stack of other plain manila folders. If there were other confidential documents that Dragon was working on, Sabo knew, they would be hidden in that stack too.

"Sabo," Dragon greeted. He looked at Ace. "You must be Ace."

Ace nodded. Sabo snuck a glance at him and resisted the urge to groan. Ace was looking at Dragon in the exact same way he looked at Sabo. It clearly wasn't a normal thing. He hadn't done it with any of the other revolutionaries. If Dragon was perturbed by Ace's expression, however, he gave no sign of it.

"Yeah," Ace said. "I'm Ace. What do you want to know? Can't say I know much more about that facility than whatever your agent here stole."

That was a lot of projected confidence in Ace's posture and tone. Ace really was nervous.

"Just one thing," Dragon said. "Sabo's report mentioned that there was one primary scientist assigned to you, but others occasionally involved themselves."

Ace nodded tightly. "There were at least ten different guys rotating through while I was there."

And not one had questioned what they were doing, Sabo thought bitterly. The black sites required a very specific kind of worker, but it was still sickening to have their continued existence confirmed time and again.

"Do you know any of their names?"

Ace frowned, his gaze going to the floor while he thought. "Off the top of my head…Jorien? Jacobson? Something with a 'j,' I'm pretty sure. No, wait. Jaus. That was it. Jaus."

Dragon and Sabo made brief eye contact. They'd heard reports of a scientist named Jaus at nearly every black site the Revolutionary Army had managed to infiltrate. He was a legend among sadists and, unfortunately, a brilliant mind. If not for that, Sabo was sure, even the marines would have thrown him in Impel Down by now.

"Anyone else?" Dragon pressed. Ace pursed his lips and then shook his head.

"No. Not right now. That Jaus guy disappeared a couple of years ago, too." He looked irritated at himself. "If I think of more names, I'll let you know."

"See to it that you do. Sabo, give us a minute alone, would you?"

This time, Ace sought Sabo's eye. Sabo tried to be reassuring; Dragon was, despite his appearance, a realistic man. At the very least, he would recognize Ace's use as an asset rather than an enemy. The Mera Mera no Mi was not something to be taken lightly.

"Just call if you need me," Sabo told Ace quietly on his way out. Ace nodded, and Sabo left the office, shutting the door behind him. Ace, painfully aware of the sudden quiet, shifted on his feet.

"You know my son," Dragon finally said. Ace hesitated, but only for a second.

"Yeah. You're Luffy's old man, aren't you? The name gives it away."

"I am." Dragon gave Ace a considering look. "I had heard of your disappearance from Goa Island, but I did not realize the circumstances. Tell me, how much do you remember of your imprisonment?"

"Most of it. Can't guarantee it's all accurate, though."

"Witness testimony never is. We simply like to keep tabs on the marines' research and methods, that's all. You are a rather unique case, too."

Ace absently rubbed the burn scars on his arm. "Yeah, I've heard that. What did you send Sabo out for?"

"I am sure you've noticed his memory loss."

"Hard not to. You rescued him?"

"Yes. He was near-death. I saved his body, but his mind…"

Ace chewed his lip. "I've been avoiding telling him the truth. I doubt he'd believe me, the way things are."

"A wise choice."

"Oh?" Ace narrowed his eyes, sensing that there was more to Dragon's actions than benevolence. "I think you just don't want to lose one of your best soldiers. Don't think I missed all the deference and crap he was getting out there. He's high up in this place. He's important to you." Seeing Dragon's narrowed eyes, Ace raised his hands. "Relax. I doubt I could tear him away from this place if I wanted to. It's not like I have anywhere I can go."

"You don't wish to return to Goa Island?"

A bitter smile pulled at Ace's lips. "What's left for me there? Luffy's gone, Sabo's gone, everyone else has probably forgotten about me. I wasn't exactly a good kid."

"Your heritage doesn't make things easy," Dragon mused.

The world stopped.

"You _know_?" Ace said, unaware of the fire dancing on his skin. Dragon, unfazed, regarded him with damning equilibrium.

"I am the supreme commander of the largest spy network in the world," he said. "Of course I know."

"Who else knows?" Ace asked. "Did they spread it around? Tell the whole world they captured Roger's son?"

Dragon shook his head. "No. Your existence is as unknown as it was twenty years ago."

Visibly relaxing, Ace closed his eyes. "Everywhere I go, that man follows."

"There are worse monsters in the world."

Ace thought about the labs, the goggles, the grasping hands and bloodied metal. "Maybe."

Dragon set his elbows on the desk and clasped his hands in front of his face. His gaze didn't waver from Ace's face. His words were measured, testing. "You can do something about them, if you wish."

Ace raised an eyebrow. "Yeah? What's that supposed to mean?"

Dragon tipped his head to the right, indicating a large map tacked up on the wall. It depicted the whole planet, with some islands circled in red, some in green, and the most in blue. String hung from it like a demented spider's web. Sensing the invitation, Ace strode over to the map and examined it, trying to piece together what all the colors, strings, and symbols meant.

"The blue islands," Dragon said from his desk, "represent known marine strongholds. The green islands are locations with strong marine influence."

"And the red ones?"

"Suspected black sites."

Reaching up to trace the nearest red island, Ace glanced over his shoulder. "Like the one I was in."

Dragon nodded. "Yes. Like the one you were in."

Ace dropped his hand and faced the man fully. "What are you offering?"

"A ship. A crew. And a list of the bases we can't get into through more…subtle means."

Ace turned to the map once more. He stared at it, fire flickering along his arms and in his hair. Vengeance settled on his shoulders and whispered sweet promises in his ear. His lips stretched into a savage grin.

"When do I start?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please review.

**Author's Note:**

> Please review.


End file.
